How Long is Forever?
by I'm Called Sweet Thang
Summary: When Harry is left with no one to love, he takes a new turn in the path of his life. Draco and Hermione are dead, and now Harry is left with only his sanity, which is slowly fading.


**Just so you know, flashbacks are in between horizontal lines & are in all italics.**

**This story is in the point of view of Harry Potter.**

_**Disclaimer!! **_**I do not claim to own Harry Potter, as J.K. Rowling does a much better job of it than I do. I just enjoy writing continuations of her stories, as they serve as good leads. Do enjoy! **

Of all of the questions I've been asked, and the ones I've asked myself, there was always one that made me think. Whether it made me think of relationships, or life... It did it. It started when I learned that my parents were gone... dead. The concept of dead perplexed me, and so I researched it in my Muggle home, as any ordinary person would do.

All the computer told me was:

"Definition of dead - absolutely and completely over."

Gee, thanks. Like I didn't already know that. What I wanted was a deeper explanation. Why were my parents gone? Of course, Harry, don't be such an idiot. But, still these questions rang in my head, continuously, driving me on a crumbling edge over insanity. Why were they gone forever? How long is forever?

How long is forever? How long is forever? No matter what else was on my mind, that infiltrated even the happiest of thoughts. Forever could be in the means of how long a relationship would last. Or, how long a person was in love. In my parents' case, how long they were gone, and incoherent of any of the torture they had put me through because they chose to die.

Then, I got a cold feeling through my spine. How could I blame them? It wasn't like they chose to die... was it? They didn't tell Voldemort, "Kill us now, so we don't have to take care of this retched child! Put us out of our misery now!" Of course not...

This wasn't the only reason that this question was unleashed on me. I wasn't the only person who ever asked me it, either.

* * *

I remember, so many times, that those beautiful, brown eyes gazed deeply into my emerald ones, which were longing for her love. Hermione was perfect: smart, beautiful... everlasting. I always had her in my heart. She always acted so closed up and unavailable for the love life, though. I thought I would never be able to get through to her. Until the last day of our seventh year.

"Harry," I remember her voice, so soft, so tender... The one that I heard in the most pleasant of my dreams. "Would you come with me for a moment? There is... Well, just come with me..." I nodded, nervous for Hermione to uncover this obviously important information.

She's taking me out of the Great Hall, I remember thinking. It's definitely important!

"Hermione, look," I said before she could speak. "If you're going to bite my head off about my grades on the Exam, then-"

I was pleasantly interrupted, when her lips plunged onto mine. She silenced me, then I realized what she had called me out for. She hadn't wanted to scold me, merely love me and caress me... To be with me. At first, I felt my eyes widen, and then slowly drift to a close. This was what I wanted. My answer. The moment went on for so long, but I wasn't going to be the one to break it. It could be our only chance, our one shot to be true to the other's feelings.

"Harry," Hermione gasped, catching her breath. Her face wasn't flushed, as opposed to mine, which I felt were emblazoned with the glimmer of embarrassment. "Harry, look, I'm sorry. I'm sorry I've been so stuck up. I'm sorry I've kept you locked out. I'm sorry I've-"

"Don't be sorry," I stopped her. "Just pay me back with this."

It was my turn. I silenced her this time, but this time I wrapped my arms around her waist, which felt so perfect in my arms. She was like a teddy bear to an uncomfortable child. She was something that I could hold onto, and never let go. I could hold onto her... Forever...

* * *

Now, I realized what forever meant. Forever wasn't really eternity, it was as long as one would live. Hermione and I didn't really get to have a forever. It seemed so unfair, me sitting here with bleeding cuts on my arms, without my dearest Hermione to comfort me. I was that child, alone and crying, without a teddy bear to hold onto. As I cut once more, I screamed out, "Malfoy, you bastard! You killed her! You killed my Hermione!" Hot tears slid down my face, but I didn't fight them. They seemed to sizzle on my cheeks, but I didn't care. All I wanted was my Hermione. She was taken from me so fast, merely months after she opened herself up to me. After our our one night, where all we had was each other, caressing and kissing, as we were happy... And what did we think? Forever... This will be forever... But, once again, I was wrong.

* * *

I opened my eyes, only to close them again in the blinding light. Why did I feel so exhausted? Then, as I rolled over, those same brown eyes were glimmering in the light, which didn't seem as intense as I realized all that had happened in the past twelve hours, and I was regaining the satisfaction of it all. I had loved Hermione, not just as a friend, but I had actually loved her. I imagined this... Her gentle breath caressing my neck as I forced my self upon her, inflicting the pleasant pain that we had both been longing for. We both wanted it, and we both got it. Hermione was smiling at me as I smoothed my unruly black hair.

"Thanks, Harry," Hermione pulled the cover off of her naked body, gathered her robes, put them on, and walked to the door. "Thanks a lot. We both needed that."

All I could do was nod, still in shock of what had happened, but basking in the glory of finally claiming what was to be mine forever.

* * *

How we overrate things, now. Forever was merely a fantasy, something to get some body's mind going, and then they would crash when they realize that no such happiness exists, at least it didn't for me. As for Ron, he was probably somewhere perfectly happy with Lavender and their cutesy little family. Sickening. Then again, if it were me, it wouldn't be sickening in the least, but why fantasize when you know that it will never come true? Forever... Whatever. All that was real to me now was the emptiness in my once happy home, and Draco Malfoy's decapitated body lying in the corner of my kitchen. I would not let my Hermione go without avenging her, killing her murderer the same way he had done her, no matter if it meant dealing with the gut wrenching stench of a decomposing body in my house or not. I wanted to be with her.

I lifted the blade once more, but this time I dragged it along my neck. I felt all of the warmth leave my body, as it had when I stood next to a flower-covered gravestone, with my beloved's name on it. I saw my whole world spin around me, and I finally realized what my forever held for me. I slumped against the wall, and muttered.

"Damn..." I gasped for my last breath, as the last reminents of life faded from my view. "See you soon, Hermione, when forever is over."


End file.
